Capturing the dual meaning of the Italian word, at once a domestic environment, secluded and solitary, and a special place destined for a physical or chemical process, CAMERA is an intimate glimpse into the alchemical processes, gestures and practices that turn a sensitive vision into a dramaturgy for the stage. Materials, notes, reflections, temporary narratives, compositions that emerge only to be discarded and overturned: three artists are invited to share, one by one, the pulsating substance of their theatrical projects, engaging them in a dialogue with the festival audience, dramaturgs, other artists and cultural operators. It is not a presentation nor an “open rehearsal” or a “study”, but a spurious moment whose sole purpose is to nurture the creative process and reveal its formulations, bringing together observation and action, allowing them to influence each other before being formalised.
At the centre of these spaces, alongside El Conde de Torrefiel, are Daria Deflorian and Giulia Crispiani.
In this CAMERA, we summon two ideas: gravity and time. Two invisible forces that flow through bodies beyond the fictions that shape the reality around us. Gravitational weight is a factual element that we always like to give space to in the works we stage. For us, it’s the empirical gap that cuts through the artifice, splitting it apart with the intention of giving weight to time – turning it into space – and triggering a change of state perceptible on a physical level, an alchemical plot twist within the conventions of representation. Gravitational weight is embodied in a metaphor capable of capturing the tension between the abstract and the tangible, it is a strategy of attraction and attention that can and wants to be felt as an act of resistance in the face of the tyranny of ultra-fictional reality. But what is gravity? And time? Past, present and future: a sad, inadequate chronological vocabulary for those who live in this intensely present and intensely incomprehensible time. In particular, the impression is that the full potential of the word “future” has been neutralised, it is perceived as bait to chase in a movement leading nowhere. We are suffering from the reality of the present and we long for the future as a cure while remaining in perpetual debt to our time, which slips through our fingers, with a present that vanishes before our very eyes in the fog of a reality dominated by forces that produce only scarcity. I’ve run out of characters for this presentation… but… how to bring on stage these metaphors of gravity and time? How to translate these principles into material for the stage?
– El Conde de Torrefiel
Tanya Beyeler (Lugano, 1980) and Pablo Gisbert (Ontinyent, 1982) founded the theatre project El Conde de Torrefiel in Barcelona in 2010. From the outset, they developed a singular and distinctive stage practice situated at the intersection of performance, literature, visual art and sound. El Conde de Torrefiel’s work is built around a dramaturgy of word and image, where text — spoken, projected, or in voiceover — coexists with bodies, soundscapes and scenography in a formally and choreographically precise mise en scène. Their pieces function as devices that layer multiple levels of meaning, creating an atmosphere suspended between the dystopian and the everyday, in a style that moves between dark humour, essay and visual poetry. The results are works that stage the complex tension between individual experience and collective construction, between the intimate and the political, with a recognisable and personal aesthetic coherence that has consolidated a distinctive artistic language throughout their career. Since 2010, the company has created fourteen productions for the stage, as well as site-specific pieces, video works, installations, and theatricalised audio guides for museums and non-conventional spaces. Among their most acclaimed works are their most recent, LEXIKON, Scenes for a Conversation After Viewing a Michael Haneke Film, GUERRILLA, La Plaza and ULTRAFICCIÓN nr.1 / Fracciones de tiempo. El Conde de Torrefiel has received numerous awards, including the Swiss National Performing Arts Award — presented to Tanya Beyeler in 2021 — and the Barcelona Critics’ Awards in 2018 for La Plaza and in 2022 for Una imagen interior. Their work is presented regularly at leading festivals and venues, particularly across Europe such as the Festival d’Avignon, the Venice Biennale, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, the Wiener Festwochen, the Festival d’Automne and Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris, Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, the MMCA in Seoul, and the Festival TransAmériques in Montreal. In Spain, their main venues are Teatre Lliure, Festival Grec and Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona, and the Teatro María Guerrero (CDN) and Centro Conde Duque in Madrid.
CAMERA is realised at ST26 thanks to the support of Associazione MEGERA